This program provides blight remediation and reinvestment opportunities within a site or area to facilitate job growth, utilize existing infrastructure, increase the local tax base, as well as improving and protecting the environment. Under F.S. 376, the Winter Park Economic Enhancement District (EED) is a State of Florida economic development tool to encourage redevelopment of properties by businesses and property owners to seek support for said remediation, through state assistance, technical support, and reach goals under the direction of the City Commission.
If you received a postal mailing as a named property owner within the EED, please note the following:
- Be aware of the deadline to optout if that is your choice.
- If a property owner within the area proposed for designation requests in writing to have their property removed from the proposed area prior to the approval of the resolution, the city must grant the request.
- If you optout, you cannot opt back in.
- Pursuant to Section 376.80(1)(C)3., Florida Statutes, the city must receive a request for removal prior the City Commission’s approval of the enacting Resolution.
The public hearing is scheduled for the City Commission meeting, Wednesday, September 10, at 3:30 p.m.
The Economic Enhancement District (EED) program is a land revitalization initiative focused on supporting sustainability and rehabilitating underused or abandoned properties to better serve the community. While environmental cleanup may be part of the process, it is just one aspect of what the program provides.
An area does not need to be contaminated to qualify. Instead, it is designated by a municipality and identified as a region with potential for revitalization through economic incentives.
FAQs
- Brownfield Enhancement Area
They are real property with the potential presence of blighted conditions. These include environmental and/or economic limitations which can be correlated to similar conditions within CRA districts. Often these potential limitations complicate business development, property transactions, or overall investment.
Almost every city and county, in both rural and urban areas, have properties under this designation. Rehabilitating and redeveloping properties is necessary to preserve neighborhoods, reduce urban sprawl, and contribute to the economic health of communities. Using this long-provided statute, communities can leverage state funding and consider local options to produce jobs, increase the tax base, and/or add other benefits.
Access the map of Economic Enhancement District (EED).
- Brownfield Enhancement Area
No. An enhancement area does not in any way imply any negative connotation towards value. It only allows access to programming should conditions exist that enable program participation under the statute.
There is no downside to participating in the program.
- Brownfield Enhancement Area
Yes. The program allows for owners who do not wish their property to be included as a Brownfield to ‘opt out.’ Access the Opt-out form if you wish to not be included. The official description must delineate the precise boundaries of the area to be excluded.
- Brownfield Enhancement Area
No. While there are federal funds available, they have to be applied for during the regular application cycle as a separate grant proposal. State requirements for example include site specificity such as it must be owned by a municipality or non-profit organization and the applicant shall not have contributed to issues such as contamination. In these cases a minimum of Phase 1 and Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessments must have been conducted on the site to qualify.
- Brownfield Enhancement Area
In order to designate the Economic Enhancement District (EED), public notices of a pending resolution must be sent to the community. The city is fulfilling this requirement through a community mailer, information on the city website, and notification as part of a regular public meeting. Thereafter, the resolution must be approved by the community’s elected officials.